Next week Pardot hosts its user conference. It will be significantly different this year as they are being rolled into ExactTarget’s user conference, Connections 2013, in Indianapolis.
I attended two previous Pardot Elevate conferences and found them to be chock full of useful sessions, knowledgeable experts and access to Pardot employees and partners. It was held in Atlanta – a location much easier to get to than Indianapolis – and with a registration fee that included 2 nights of hotel plus meals, it was excellent value.
I’m skeptical about what we’re going to see at Connections. Marc Benioff!! Condozleeza Rice!! The real reason we go to these user conferences is to improve our skills with tools we use every day. Pardot has been relegated to just one session track, B2B Marketing, for a total of 6 break-out sessions, plus 4 pre-conference half-day bootcamps. On the surface this feels like a significant reduction in the Pardot-related content being delivered, but we’ll see how it plays out at the conference.
On the plus side, there are 5 other session tracks focusing on various aspects of email marketing – ExactTarget’s bread and butter. So, for those who want to go deeper on the email side, there is a wealth of rich content to choose from.
I’m particularly excited about a bootcamp I’m attending on personalization that will include the Dynamic Content functionality. While I’ve been a Pardot user for over 3 years, this is one set of capabilities that I’ve not used. I look forward to learning more about how to personalize a user’s web site experience by presenting more relevant content and how that can impact web site conversion.
I’ll keep you posted on my thoughts on the conference next week. In the meantime, if you’re not a Pardot user, check out their web site to learn more about their solutions.
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